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Sat 9 Jun, 2007 07:28 am
Bush hires lawyers to fight legal battles with Congress
By Ron Hutcheson
McClatchy Newspapers
6/9/07
WASHINGTON - President Bush is signing up legal help as he girds for battle with the Democratic-led Congress.
Faced with a flurry of document requests and expanding congressional investigations, the White House announced Friday that Bush had hired nine lawyers, including five who'll fill new jobs in the president's legal office. The recruits have solid experience in white-collar crime, government investigations and constitutional law.
Legal experts said the hires indicated that Bush was gearing up to fight congressional inquiries that he considered an encroachment on presidential power. The president has accused Democrats of seeking to score political points by delving into White House deliberations on a host of issues.
"This indicates a war-on-all-fronts legal strategy against congressional oversight," said Washington lawyer Bruce Fein, who served as the deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration.
Bush, who's tested the limits of presidential authority on issues ranging from electronic eavesdropping to the control of presidential papers, has made no secret of his frustration with congressional investigations.
After six years with a compliant Republican-led Congress, the White House is facing a host of congressional investigations and demands for top presidential advisers to testify. The White House and Congress could be headed for a showdown if Democrats follow through on threats to subpoena White House adviser Karl Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for an investigation into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.
"The White House is laying in its stone wall," said John Flannery, a former federal prosecutor and a Democratic activist. "They are preparing to deflect the subpoenas for Rove and Miers from the beaches of Capitol Hill to the heights of the Supreme Court if necessary."
White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore acknowledged that the hires are directly related to the change of power in Congress.
"Our goal is to simply have the right people in place to adequately address issues and requests that come our way. Obviously, there's been an increase with the new Congress," she said. "While we do recognize some requests as legitimate and responsible requests for information, others are unfortunate fishing expeditions."
Turds found in Capitol, but no 'blossoms' in sight RAW STORY
Published: Friday June 15, 2007
According to a Capitol Hill newspaper, police are unable to solve the mystery of the "caca caper."
"Usually, if a turd gets into the Senate, it's because he or she was elected," Emily Heil reports for Roll Call. "But on Wednesday, several large piles of actual, nonmetaphorical 'No. 2' found their way into the Capitol, and the source isn't yet clear."
Heil continues, "On Wednesday afternoon, Capitol Police cordoned off a section of the hallway on the third floor of the Senate side of the Capitol, where at least three piles of the stuff were causing a stench ?- and a stir. At first, the word circulating among the staff was that a visiting child had fallen ill while in the gallery. But then the prevailing theory was that the foul stuff had come from an adult or group of adults making a yet-to-be-determined political statement."
According to the paper, "Reports also circulated that the yucky stuff had been smeared on seats in the gallery overlooking the chamber floor, and the gallery remained closed hours after the incident was first noted."
Excerpts from article:
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Sources familiar with Capitol maintenance speculated it was "an unfortunate incident involving a child," although they have no culprit and very little detail about how it transpired. The section of hallway was still closed as of late Wednesday and officials will engage in an "intense cleaning" of the section following Senate business Wednesday night, the sources said.
Witnesses said they couldn't believe that a single culprit could have produced the volume of poo present or that a person could have, well, deposited it the normal way without attracting attention. Several witnesses speculated it had been brought in from elsewhere.
"There was so much of it, there was just no way it came from a little kid or even that one person had done it," said one staffer who witnessed the stinky scene.
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